The LRA Crisis

Since the late 1980’s, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has terrorized remote areas of East and Central Africa, targeting civilians in a brutal campaign of abduction, murder and forced displacement. Led by Joseph Kony, the LRA first formed in northern Uganda in response to marginalization of the area by the central government. However, the LRA soon lost popular support in northern Uganda and evolved into a group that survives by preying on vulnerable communities and abducting children to fight its battles.

Since 2006, it has not been active in Uganda, but instead operates in the remote border areas of Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Central African Republic (CAR), and Sudan, where more than 400,000 are now displaced due to LRA attacks. LRA violence is enabled by a broader context of instability and underdevelopment in each of the affected countries, challenges which distract the attention of regional and international leaders while making effective responses far more difficult to mount.